Doing Stupid Things

Above: Anglican prelates gather to discuss women bishops.

The Anglican Death March continues. Canterbury has been sliding for a long time now. They've had fake priests for a while. Then it was fake women priests. Now, it's going to be fake women bishops.

Per Zenit:

The Anglican Church of England will allow women bishops after an historic vote during the ecclesial community's general synod.

The Daily Telegraph reports that 81 per cent of synod members backed the change, during the sitting in the English city of York on Monday, and 75 per cent of the laity supported the move.

The result of the ballot, which will be formally passed after two further votes this afternoon have been completed, clears the way for the first female clerics to be ordained as Anglican bishops by the end of this year, if the legislation is quickly ratified by Parliament.

The vote also means that the next Archbishop of Canterbury or York – two of the most important sees in the Anglican Communion – could be a woman.

The vote comes just 20 months after the previous attempt to admit women to the episcopate failed despite overwhelming support in congregations, casting the church into its biggest crisis of authority in recent memory.

Notice how quick the change came. A similar attempt was thwarted less than two years ago. Now, it passes. Some of this is probably attributable to the fact that Archlayman Welby was all-in for women to play pretend-bishop from the beginning, as we mentioned previously, whereas Rowan would never really take a stand on anything.

Welby has really stuck his neck out on this.

Many traditionalist Anglicans are opposed to the move. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rev. Justin Welby, has tried to reassure them that theological objections to women’s ministry would enjoy special provision in the ecclesial community.

WooHoo! You mean it? Really? I'm sure the Global South parishes are totally stoked about this now and wondering why they didn't opt for this sooner now that they are assured of a "special provision."

Fr. Longenecker has provided a decent analysis of the situation here.

The fact of the matter is that in deciding to have first women priests and now women bishops, the Anglican Church has also decided what kind of church she is. She is a Progressive Protestant Church along with the modern day Lutherans and Methodists. There is no reason, therefore, why they should not have women ministers. This article discusses this point in more detail. While this article explains why women cannot be ordained as Catholic priests. The Anglican decision to have women priests and bishops has been a genuine blow to the cause of church unity. It is a blow that, in human terms, cannot be overcome. However, it has clarified the identity of the Anglican Church and in the process, clarified matters for many of us who have decided that the Church of England, now self identified as a Progressive Protestant Church is not the Church we wish to belong to.

The solution to all this is pretty obvious. You can mark it down, though. We will continue to see ridiculous amounts of time and resources devoted to "dialogue" with the Anglican whatever-the-hell-it-is-now. ARCIC isn't going anywhere, and we'll continue to see all the bells and whistles that go with it, despite Pope Francis's call for aid to the poor or other stuff. When these events occur, you can also mark it down that Catholicism will continue to be accused of, and greatfully accept, the bulk of the blame for the ongoing schism. Our prelates will continue to scrape and apologize, while Anglicanism cloaks its ecclesial degeneracy in enlightened rhetoric and faux outrage.